If the squat is the king of lower body exercises, then the push-up is the emperor of upper body movements. In the outdated “body part” training approach, the push-up and all its variations (unilateral/one arm, handstand, on the rings, incline and decline, to name just a few) was usually thought to be primarily a chest or triceps-focused exercise. But if it’s done right, this seemingly simple move actually works muscles from head to toe and tests your body’s ability to maintain stability in the prime movers of the hips and shoulders. Want to paddle better or protect your shoulders and lower joints?
The trouble is that many people do even a basic push-up incorrectly, which can lead to shoulder issues, lower back pain and other orthopedic problems, as well as minimizing the performance benefits of this potentially potent move. It’s all too easy to get caught in the trap of banging out a lot of reps or trying to make the push-up more challenging, without first mastering basic positional competence. Here are a few ways to fix your pushup so that you’re making the most of it and doing yourself good, not harm.
Screw Your Hands into the Ground
While there are some differences between the hip and shoulder, they are analogous in many ways. When we squat, we want to have our feet in a neutral (i.e. straight) position, and create stabilizing torque in our hips by screwing our feet into the ground. While we do need to lock in the hips-to-lower back relationship in the push-up, it’s the shoulders that are the prime movers. We can apply the lesson of hip torque (external rotation) to the shoulder by transferring the positional cues for the feet to the hands. To get your shoulders in a stable position and keep them there no matter what crazy pushup variations you’re going to attempt, make sure your hands are straight with fingers splayed, and screw them into the ground – the left hand counterclockwise and the right hand clockwise.
For more on this tip, see 1:15 onward in this video.
Sort Out Your Elbows and Lower Arm Positioning
One of the other joints that needs to move during the pushup is the elbow. However, far too many people put this hinge joint in jeopardy by flaring it out wide away from the body. Instead, you should tuck your elbows in close to your ribcage when you’re in the bottom setup position, and keep them there throughout the movement. Then there’s the issue of what happens below the elbow and its implications further up the kinetic chain. Not to talk too much about the squat, but one of the key movement cues is to keep the shins vertical to make sure the hip, knee and ankle stay aligned. In the push-up, the lower arm takes on the role of the shin. Most people put the hands too far forward, leading to a crazy lower arm angle that puts the elbow and shoulder at risk of injury. To make sure the lower arm stays vertical, position the hands a lot further below the shoulders than you usually would, so that they’re almost level with the bottom of your ribcage (enabling you to tuck the elbows as we just covered).
To see how this tip works,check out this video.
Don’t Forget the Butt
We’ve looked at how to get and keep the shoulder and elbow in stable positions during the push-up. Now it’s time to think about how we preserve a functional, non-damaging hip-to-spine relationship. The first – if surprising – step is to put the feet close together. This makes it easier for you to engage the glutes (aka butt muscles), which helps ensure the pelvis is in the right position (so much for those funky starfish push-ups, eh?). The second part is actually squeezing those muscles, which are among the most powerful in the body (as well as the abs) to preserve the position. This prevents the dreaded hip drop, which precedes the kind of lower back slump that you often see people succumbing to late in their sets, which in turn leads to that nasty soreness the next day. If you can keep your midline engaged and in the same position throughout the push-up, you’ll not only protect your back but will also reinforce the stability needed for other exercises and the sports you play.
See the push-up done right with glutes and abs engaged in this video.
